Christopher Del Negro
William & Mary, VA·Neuroscience
When an animal senses danger, it often freezes in place, its heart slows, and its breathing slows or briefly stops. Scientists know which brain circuits cause the freezing and the slower heartbeat, but not which circuits pause breathing.
- Fields
Neuroscience
Physiology
Biology
- Topics
breathing control
respiratory rhythm
preBötzinger complex
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jan 2028
What they work on
- Test whether inhibitory GABAergic neurons of the central amygdala connect directly to excitatory breathing-rhythm neurons in the preBötzinger complex, using light-activated (optogenetic) proteins in VgatCre mice and recordings from brainstem slices.
- Measure the electrical properties of the amygdala-to-preBötzinger synapses in adult mouse brainstem slices to learn how strongly this inhibitory input drives the core breathing neurons.
- Test whether stimulating the central amygdala with light at graded intensities can slow or fully stop breathing in awake adult mice.
- Evaluate the hypothesis that seizures spreading into the amygdala stop breathing by activating this inhibitory amygdala-to-preBötzinger pathway, a possible cause of SUDEP (sudden unexpected death in epilepsy).
More about the research
The question matters for medicine too. In SUDEP (sudden unexpected death in epilepsy), seizures can stop a patient's breathing for long periods, yet patients do not feel panic or air hunger.
Why it matters
Mapping an amygdala-to-breathing circuit could help explain sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP), a rare but fatal event in which seizures stop breathing. Knowing this pathway may point to ways to treat or prevent SUDEP in people with epilepsy. It would also clarify how mammals control breathing while they assess threats.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Yangyang Wang
Brandeis University, MA·Neuroscience
Identify how inhibitory neuromodulation by opioids changes the dynamics and properties of glutamatergic synapses in the preBötzinger Complex, the brainstem network that drives inhaled breaths.
Jamie Maguire
Tufts University, MA·Neuroscience
Test whether activity in the pathway from stress-hormone CRH neurons in the hypothalamus to the brainstem's nucleus of the solitary tract is increased in chronically epileptic mice at risk of SUDEP.
David Auerbach
Upstate Medical University, NY·Physiology
Test whether rabbits with a CRISPR-made Kcnh2 pore mutation reproduce the brain and heart problems of LQT2 patients with epilepsy, including QT prolongation, spontaneous seizures and seizure-related sudden death.
The school
William & Mary: 11 labs on PI Pages, $95M a year on research, 67 research doctorates a year.
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